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Security Policies Procedures
Security Audit Program
Security Policies and Procedures and Audit Program

DRP Security Template
DRP BCP Audit
IT Hiring IT Job Descriptions IT Salary Survey

Security Topics

How to Justify Security Spending
ISO Domains & Security Manual Template
ISO 27008:2011
Top 10 Security Myths
Security Issue Trends
Security Management
BYOD
Common User Passwords
User Security Holes
Passwords
Top Network
Security Weaknesses

Malware Impact On Security
Steps to Detect and Prevent Security Breaches
Insider Data Security Issues
What is HIPAA
SmartPhone & Tablet Security
Digital Copier Risk
Mobile Device Security



 

Disaster Recovery PlanSecurity Manual Template

ISO27000, Sarbanes - Oxley, PCI-DSS & HIPAA Compliant

Multi-Country License Options

The Global Standard for Security Policies and Procedures

    Sample Disaster Plan

The License for the Security Manual Template can be purchased for use for either by a single company in a single country, single company in a country group like the EU, or by a single company for worldwide use.

License Options

  • Order Disaster Plan Single CountryA single (1) country for a single (1) company (DUNS number)
    Standard License

  • Order Disaster Plan EnterpriseA country group (North America, Central America, South America, EU, Africa, Middle East, Asia, or Pan-Pacific) for multiple related company groups -
    Enterprise License

  • Order Disaster Plan World Wide LicenseWorldwide (International) use for multiple related company groups Worldwide License

License Conditions

The template can be placed on the enterprise's Intranet and be used as the standard for all  divisions and operating units of the enterprise.  The template is not for re-sale or re-distribution by consultants or VARs.  If a consultant or a VAR wishes to use this for its clients Janco Associates should be contacted directly

Janco can provide coordination services for the enterprise on a time and materials basis.  In addition Janco can save copies of a companies customized DRP in its archives for retrieval in by the enterprise.  

 Contact us directly for pricing of these services at +011 435 940-9300 x 101.


Testimonials

Testimonial - Dave Baker - City of Hamilton -I have found the Janco template invaluable!

Testimonial - Bob Rifenbury -MCSE/CCNA Lauch Testing Lab -The Janco Template saved me about 6 months of work!

Testimonial -  Kelly Keeler - Martin's Point Health Care -I have received and I began using the template immediately. IT IS GREAT! Made this process a snap for me. Cut my documentation time down from.  weeks to hours! This document has made, what began to be an overwhelming process turn into a snap!

Testimonial - Juan Stamos - Mexico City Corporation -We had a DRP in place, but needed a more user friendly structure.  The Security Manual Template (Gold edition) has that structure.  It was very easy to quickly move our policies into Janco's DRP Template -- a real added value.


This template is not for resale or re-distribution


 

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Security Policies and Procedures Multi-Site Implementation Considerations


BYOD impacts mobile device policy

May 12th, 2012

BYOD PolicyRecord Management PolicyCIOs are looking into a wide range of devices.  Most published data shows that the most capital expenditures are related to mobile devices - tablets (rising), laptops (declining), and smartphones (rising).  A "post-laptop" era many not necessarily mean that laptops will disappear from the workplace. Rather smartphones and tablets can perform certain functions more efficiently than a laptop. Asides from communication, smartphones are mostly used for very light work, such as checking email or quick web browsing. Tablet users find a broader variety of applications, including note-taking and presentations.

Bring Your Own Device Sample

One implication is that CIOs will need to manage a suite of three devices for those workers who require flexibility in their computing options. Many CIOs are exploring mobile device management (MDM) tools, while others are adopting Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) policies by giving workers device stipends and transferring the liability and support away from the IT department.
 

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Infrastructure focus of IT Budgets

April 29th, 2012

IT InfrastructureSafety Program TemplateMobility and wireless network infrastructures are the big takers when it comes to IT budget planning for 2012, according to a research study. Organizations are moving to the next stage of the IT infrastructure build-out across multiple budget areas, and the 2012 IT Investment Patterns Study shows how the strategy trends of innovation, integration and reversion are having a significant impact on 2012 spending patterns.

Order Infrastructure TemplateDownload Infrastructure Template

The IT environment is too complex to rely on outmoded ways to keep the business functioning and thriving flawlessly. To balance the many crucial and changing enterprise demands to move the organization forward, an IT governance process is required. This increases risks in expectations of IT --- the growth of the Internet, compliance concerns, mobile computing and advanced security risks – as reasons for the critical need for IT governance. Instituting a governance process can serve as a catalyst that can effectively bring together the dynamics of cross-enterprise communication and summarize key, relevant data to provide critical metrics to make informed decisions.

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Cloud becomes more robust

April 13th, 2012

IT Infrastructure Strategy Charter ISOCloudOn does several things right. First, it uses your Dropbox or Box cloud storage to save and access the files you are working on, and you can use both services, such as to separate personal and work projects. That means no messy file transfers before you go or when on the road, as OnLive requires. Your files are accessible from a variety of devices, including your iPad for access by other apps. If you use Box's enterprise service offering, you can even take on files in a workgroup setting and under IT management policies.

Second, CloudOn uses native iOS capabilities where it makes sense. For example, when working with text, you get the iPad's own onscreen keyboard or you can use a Bluetooth keyboard, if you have one -- not the funky, too-small Windows 7 floating keyboard. CloudOn even adds to the standard oscreen ipad keyboard Windows-specific keys: the Ctrl, Alt, Del, and Esc keys, the F1 through F12 function keys, and the four cursor keys. You also get file sharing via email using the standard iOS Share facility.

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[New Topic]

April 5th, 2012

BYOD Policy

With the advent of user owned device and the ever increasing mandated requirements for record retention and security CIO are challenged to manage in an ever more complex and changing environment. 

Bring Your Own Device Sample

Before you start the process of implementing BYOD policies the CIO needs to ensure that what is created meets the an enterprise’s compliance, culture and operational requirements.  This requires defining the scope and objectives of the policy:

  • Cost - Who will pay for the data plan? Will rewards will you provide to get people to buy in?
  • Agree to Acceptable Use - What terms will you include in your Acceptable Usage Policy, and how will you ensure your employees understand and agree to it?
  • Mandated requirements :   You will have to account for factors such as open source variables for  Android implementations for different devices  and any security or regulatory requirements that relate to your industry (i.e. Healthcare HIPAA compliance)
  • Security: Will the policy state how you enforce passwords? Encryption? Do you want to blacklist any applications?
  • Management: How will you manage the devices connected to your network?
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Major data breach

April 2nd, 2012

Security PoliciesGlobal Payments: Data breach is contained but is removed as a credit card processor by Visa and MasterCard.

Security incidents are rising at an alarming rate every year. As the complexity of the threats increases, so do the security measures required to protect networks and enterprise critical data. CIOs, Data center operators, network administrators, and other IT professionals need to comprehend the basics of security in order to safely deploy and manage data and networks today.

It was first reported that Global Payments suffered a security breach, where as many 50,000 cardholders may have had their information exposed.  Then after some investigation that number escalated to over 1,500,000.

Global Payments processes card payments between merchants and banks, sitting in the middle-ground directing where payment data should go.

Global Payments, a third-party payments processor to Visa and MasterCard credit and debit cards, said that while customer data may be at risk, the data breach has been "contained to the best of our ability."

Order Security ManualTable of Contents

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Apple uses bogus number to mis-direct media attention

March 8th, 2012

BYOD Policy  Apple says that it has created or supported more than 500,000 jobs. Phishing attacks cost the economy $234 billion a year. And giving social and mobile CRM tools to salespeople makes them 26.4 percent more productive. This is all PR hype

Apple's attempt at statistical flimflammery is offensive because it is a transparent attempt to change the public conversation about Apple from the question of poor labor practices in the Chinese factories that make iPhones and iPads to job creation.

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Older workers are not retiring

March 1st, 2012

Few mature professionals are planning to retire soon, according to CareerBuilder. Fifty seven percent of workers age 60 plus surveyed said they would look for a new job after retiring from their current company.  Some continue working to compensate for the hit personal and retirement savings took during the recession. But it's not all about money.

IT Hiring

Many still feel they have too much to contribute to even consider retirement. And many employers agree; several said they plan to hire older employees this year. Whether mature workers are motivated by financial concerns or simply enjoy going to work every day, we're seeing more people move away from the traditional definition of retirement to seek employment in new jobs. At the same time, employers are seeing the value these mature workers can bring to an organization, from their intellectual capital to their mentoring and training capabilities.

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Cloud management for DOD won by a small business

February 24th, 2012

Cloud OutsourcingData Computer Corporation of America has won two Defense Department task orders worth roughly $4.3 million for cloud computing services.

Under the terms of the task orders, which will be completed over a two-year time period, the company will provide the DOD with cloud computing design and development, as well as operations and maintenance support services.

The company, a small business, will provide expertise in cloud computing architecture design and development, as well as software analysis, design, integration and testing.

In addition theywill perform cloud architecture integration, including map-reduce processing, application management, and data visualization.

Order Cloud Outsourcing Template    Sample Cloud Outsourcing Contract
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Cybersecurity Act of 2012 gives DHS control of Internet

February 15th, 2012

The Cybersecurity Act of 2012 calls for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to assess risks and vulnerabilities of computer systems running at critical infrastructure sites such as power companies and electricity and water utilities and to work with the operators to develop security standards that they would be required to meet.

Senators are taking another crack at pushing a broad cybersecurity bill three years in the making, once again stripping a controversial Internet "kill switch" and making other concessions in a bid to find an elusive bipartisan majority in an election year. 

Compliance Process

The DHS would determine which companies fit the definition of critical infrastructure as defined by systems "whose disruption from a cyber attack would cause mass death, evacuation, or major damage to the economy, national security, or daily life." Companies would have the right to appeal the designation, under the measure introduced by Sens. John D. (Jay) Rockefeller IV, (D-West Virginia), Joe Lieberman (I-Connecticut), Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Dianne Feinstein (D-California).

Owners or operators of critical infrastructure systems would need to determine how to best meet performance requirements and to verify that that they were doing so, with owners having the ability to either "self-certify" compliance or use a third-party assessor.

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Hiring trend up for IT Pros

February 8th, 2012

Demand for IT professionals is steadily increasing, confidence is rising once again. The latest IT Employee Confidence Index reveals that optimism levels have climbed.

Hiring Trenes

CIO and HR executives are seeing great demand for project managers, analytics professionals and .NET application developers, demonstrating that companies are opening their budgets and embracing technology implementation. And one-quarter of all employers are actively looking for new staff, meaning CIOs and other tech managers must focus on the needs of IT teams to avoid unnecessary hiring and re-training costs.

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iPhone5 to make remote computing easier

January 28th, 2012

Mobile Device UseAccording to the Jan. 25 report’s "reliable source at Foxconn in China," the various prototypes circulating around that production facility share some common features, including a 4-plus-inch display and a casing that no longer follows the design aesthetics of the iPhone 4 and iPhone 4S. "No teardrop-shaped devices, as rumored in the lead up to the iPhone 4S," related 9to5Mac. "Samples so far have been symmetrical in thickness (also longer/wider)."

Order Mobile Device Access Use PolicySample Outsourcing Policy

Scuttlebutt concerning a larger iPhone 5 screen has circulating for some time, as the blog points out. That being said, variations between the prototypes suggest that Apple has yet to settle on a release version. If Apple follows the release cadence it established with previous iPhone iterations, this newest smartphone could make its debut in either the summer or early fall timeframes.

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IT Hiring Trends

January 16th, 2012

If you've been promising your loyal IT staffers that you'll take care of them with raises when the economy turns around, 2012 is unlikely to be the year you get to make good on those promises. While employees in some roles will see increases this year, raises will be held in check, according to the most recent annual salary survey and forecast from Janco Associates. And CIOs and other executive-level IT managers will be in the same boat, likely to see level compensation from last year.

IT Hiring Trends

Find out what it's all about. See the IT 2012 IT Salary Survey

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Factors to Consider in a Disaster Recovery & Business Continuity Plan

January 8th, 2012

The Janco Disaster Recovery Plan & Business Continuity Template takes into consideration all of  the items related to various layers of operations that most enterprises need to consider if they want to continue after a disaster occurs. These include:

   

  • Strategy - Items related to the strategies used by the business to complete day-to-day activities while enabling continuous operations. Examples include financial, manufacturing and disaster recovery strategies.
  • Organization - Items related to the structure, skills, communications and responsibilities of your employees. Examples include human resources, training, and internal and external communications.
  • Applications and data - Items related to the software necessary which enable business operations, as well as the method used to develop that software. Examples include customer relationship management (CRM) applications, enterprise resource planning (ERP) applications, databases and transaction processors.
  • Processes - Items related to the critical business processes necessary to run the business, as well as the IT processes used to ensure smooth operations. Examples include accounts receivable, accounts payable, change manage­ment and problem management.
  • Technology - Items related to the systems, network and industry-specific technology necessary to enable your applications and data. Examples include host systems, workstations and Internet Protocol (IP) networks.
  • Facilities- Items related to the buildings, factories and offices necessary to house your organization and your production or service technologies. Exam­ples include data centers, office buildings and physical security operations.
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Patch Management Policy Released

December 13th, 2011

With the ever rising availability of enterprise data to mobile users there has been a significant increase in security exposure for information and network assets. The CEO of Janco Associates said, "As many as 90 percent of successful attacks are against vulnerabilities in which a patch already exists. Despite this statistic, many computers do not have the latest security patches installed, putting organizations at serious risk from a variety of malware threats. Patches are time-consuming to track and administer, and it is often difficult to see which computers actually have critical patches installed correctly. Without this visibility, IT managers have no simple method of identifying computers most at risk." He added, "To meet this requirement Janco has added a Patch Management Policy to its popular CIO Infrastructure Policy Bundle."

Patch Management timeline

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Microsoft's IE follows FireFox spell check to be added

November 9th, 2011

Browser Market ShareFirefox has had spell check implemented for several versions.  Microsoft is now trying to catch up.

Microsoft is adding a commonly requested feature - spell-checking - to Internet Explorer (IE) 10. The  feature is part of the already-released IE 10 developer previews, but Microsoft called it out and explained it in detail on the IEBlog.

Order Browser Market Share StudyDownload Selected Pages

IE 9 doesn't include spell-checking. That lacking feature is cited by more than a few users as one reason they aren't using IE 9. But because IE 10 will be the version of IE bundled with Windows 8, which will be optimized for touch input, spell checking is no longer taking a back seat.

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Healthcare IT jobs are plentiful

November 8th, 2011

Many IT expertise pros have lost jobs, however healthcare is hiring to fill an expected shortage of 50,000 workers to support implementation of electronic health records and health information exchange. HIMSS and ASHHRA want to let technology professionals know and they want to have access to each other's knowledge.

Health Care vs. Financial Services Job Growth

Heath Care Job Growth

Employment is on the rise in Healthcare IT and spending will reach $40 billion by the end of this year. Much of that growth will come from spending on electronic health record (EHR) systems, mobile health applications and efforts to comply with new government standards. Boosted by increased spending on healthcare software -- which is needed for the rollout of EHR systems -- the U.S. healthcare IT market is expected to grow at a rate of about 24% per year from 2012 to 2014, the study said. Spending on healthcare software rose 20.5% in the past year, from $6.8 billion in 2010 to a projected $8.2 billion this year. Recent mergers and acquisitions in the healthcare IT market also point to growing private-sector interest in software, which will see sales grow at rate of more than 30% annually from 2012 to 2014.

The federal government is devoting $116 million to health IT workforce training in the form of grants to community colleges and graduate medical informatics programs, as well as curriculum development, but that alone won't be enough to make up the entire labor shortage.

IT Job Descriptions  IT Hiring Kit  IT Salary Survey

Download Salary Survey

 

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Malware attacks increase

November 5th, 2011

Malware is complex and seemingly everywhere and is often difficult to stop. It knows how to find your data - even on your mobile device and Mac. You can't ignore your "safe" devices any longer: you need to recognize and stop the threats before they do harm.

Electronic CommunicationMobile Device Use

Malicious software can take the form of a computer virus or worm and disrupt or deny computer operations, steal private or sensitive information or gain unauthorized access to system resources. Since January 2011, serious malware attacks have hit many high-profile organizations who suffered damaging data loss. Some attacks were for kicks, some for money, some for political hacktivist reasons and some for reasons unknown.

One of the best ways to communicate and understand a company and its operating culture is through its policies. Designing and writing policy and communicating it effectively is an essential skill for professionals to have. By having policy carefully developed and communicated, employees will clearly know what the organization expects from them, the degree of control and independence they will have, and what the benefits and consequences are in regard to adhering to policy.

The policies that Janco has created are a must have that every enterprise needs. They can all be accessed by going to the Policy Master Page or the individual policies can accessed directly by clicking on the links below.

The policies have just been updated to comply with all mandated requirements and include electronic forms that can be Emailed, filled out completely on the computer, routed and stored electronically. A totally solution that uses technology at its best.

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Tax liability impacted by disaster recovery plan

October 27th, 2011

Keeping track of a tax liability among multiple states can get complicated. If you have three servers in three states, software could be running in any one at any time, so you’d have to consider presence in all three states. For example, if you have disaster recovery site in Pennsylvania, and that establishes presence in that state. A third party runs it; you many never have people going there and no one touches it, but you have a tax liability in that state. For customers who buy services, even though they're buying from a provider in California, they have to pay sales tax in Pennsylvania because they have a presence there.

Sales and use tax boils down to where a business has a physical presence that opens it up to tax liability within that jurisdiction. But when it comes to the cloud - where services are sold to customers who may access them anywhere from servers located who-knows-where by companies that may be headquartered anyplace - determining presence, and the liabilities that go with it, is anything but straightforward.

Cloud OutsourcingThe state of New York has ruled that presence is determined by where an application is used, not where it is hosted. The location of the software code, according to the 2009 opinion of the New York Commissioner of Taxation and Finance, was deemed irrelevant. . .because the software could be used just as effectively by the customer even though the customer never received the code on a tangible medium or by download. (Meaning, the customer accessed the software through a browser, as is the case with cloud services.) The fact that the cloud contract provided no grant of license to use software was not found controlling. In other words, the cloud provider should be collecting sales and use tax just as if it were mailing disks to the customer, and the customer should be paying whether or not it receives a perpetual license.

Many states are moving toward an economic presence standard whereby out-of-state businesses establish presence when making sales through an agreement with a person located in that state and the in-state person refers customers to the out-of-state business through a website link.


 

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Record Retention for the long-term

October 16th, 2011

 Record Management PolicyA whopping 80 percent of the organizations studied have reported a need to retain electronic records for more than 50 years. Can your enterprise store 50 years of electronic records given current technology? Without data loss?  Do you think that you can do more than three migrations of archival data from one storage media to the next without data loss?

How many consumers using Internet photo services sites think that your digitized images will still be there 50 years from now?

To address those questions the 100 Year Archive Task Force (100YrATF), operated by the SNIA's Data Management Forum, is as a global, multi-agency group working to define best practices and storage standards for long-term digital information retention.

The 100 Yr ATF was created by SNIA because of the pending crisis in long-term preservation of digital information in the IT datacenter.  The crisis has two principle challenges:

  • Losing information that is stored digitally due to corruption, loss of access, loss of discoverability, or loss of readability
  • Losing control of the ability to keep up with migrating the overwhelming volume of information to new media and into new logical formats.  
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What role does the CEO have in the CIOs success

October 9th, 2011

Why should senior management care about their CIOs' problems? Knowing what concerns the CIO could be a first step toward building what could be a more effective IT organization.

  • CIOs are hired to be strategic, but spend most of their time in the weeds
    Infrastructure uses up 80% of the IT budget, it's no wonder they have difficulty getting to the value-added projects.  There is no easy solution to the tension between strategic expectations and operational exigencies, but outsourcing much of what is a commodity, and focusing on competitive differentiators, is a good place to start.

  • CIOs are stewards of risk mitigation and cost containment, yet they need to drive innovationCIO Job Description
    How do you build a culture in which you both tightly control costs yet allow for the failures that everyone knows come with innovation?  How do you maintain a locked-down, high-security armored tank of an infrastructure while allowing for the openness that experimentation requires?  The problem of securing an organization's data while supporting the innovation that springs from creative employees demanding to use their own devices, build their own applications, and choose their own platforms grows more intense by the day.

  • Technology is a long-term investment, but many companies think in quarters
    Ten years ago, CIOs had to convince the purchasing group that automating reverse auctions was better than paper RFPs, and that took time. Today, CIOs do not have to convince the business of anything. They assume it will work and they want the payout within a quarter.  While CIOs face constrained budgets, the demands on technology only increase. This paradox has plagued the IT organization for 30 years and is heating up now that software-as-a-service (SaaS) vendors increasingly are selling directly to business leaders, promising quick ROI. Then it falls to the CIO to make sure these apps integrate smoothly and securely with the organization's core systems.

  • IT pervades and serves every part of the business, yet the IT organization is often removed from it
    You would think the word and would function as a connector, a word that implies togetherness.  Yet the phrase "IT and the business" does not work that way. Rather, it connotes separateness and difference, creating an us-versus-them culture that belies the actual isolation of IT.  The language people use to describe a group has a powerful impact on how it's perceived. If you can manage it, CEOs and senior management should stop using that phrase themselves and encourage others to drop it from their lexicon. But changing language is only one step.  Today, CIOs are hiring business relationship executives in the hope of eliminating a useless distinction and a distracting divide.

  • CIOs are accountable for project success, but the business has to own the project
    Most CIOs proudly proclaim that in their organization, "There are no IT projects, only business projects."  This is a wonderful sentiment, but it often becomes a problem during the last mile when the business has to pony up resources to complete an IT implementation.  CIO often say, "How do you drive something you cannot really own? If you drive it yourself, people will say, 'Why is this guy doing things to us?'" So, yes, all IT projects should be business projects, but the business needs to be a good faith partner with IT.

The best CIOs have figured out how to manage up, around, and through these contradictions, but it is harder without the awareness and support of an enlightened CEO and executive committee.

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